arrange • compose • conduct
It’s impossible to be prepared for every eventuality. But… The first time you do something – perform a recital, say, or do a recording session – you can’t know what to expect, or what common pitfalls are to be avoided. You’re going to have to learn, through a combination of […]
Creativity is unpredictable. When every project is different on some level, it’s easy, when asked to take on a project, to say to yourself, “I don’t actually know how to do this.” It’s true – I don’t. I’ve never done this before, precisely, and I don’t know it can be […]
Working with students requires you to occupy three places on the timeline. First, you have the past – what they needed when you started working with them. When this school year started, students needed love, psychological safety, and routine. Second, you have the present – what they need today to […]
“You’re so smart, you should be a doctor!” (lawyer, rocket scientist, engineer) Yes, you could be those things. But how should you use your intellect? Use your intellect to bring more love into the world. However that works for you. Be a teacher. Be an author. Yes, be a musician. […]
All the leadership books, seminars, and past wisdom should fall out the window once you’re in the room with your people you’re leading. Well, they don’t fall out the window. They should still form the core of your approach to leadership. But I have never learned a leadership technique that […]
Tonight, I heard an ensemble demonstrate something I had been pretty sure was impossible.* Knowing it’s possible will change my musical outlook forever. That’s one of two reasons I program hard music by great ensembles with my groups. When an ensemble hears New York Voices or The Real Group or […]
Pacing in a studio session is one of the overlooked essentials of success. I’m obsessed with getting a new engineer up to speed on my strategies, preferences, and quirks before a session, and the reason is that those are the things that most affect pacing – the downtime between takes, […]
“For those who have been trained by it, no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful.” These words, this tune, sing in my ears whenever I’m struggling to find the discipline to do the work I intend to do. “I’m tired.” “I don’t feel like it.” “I can do […]
How should musicians emulate physicians? First, do no harm. Those are the words attributed to Hippocrates, though they don’t appear in the Hippocratic Oath. And they’re a great takeaway for musicians. Do no harm – don’t alienate your music students or inhibit their love of music. Do no harm – […]
As we’ve gotten back into events that we haven’t done in a while, I find myself having to approach them differently. The event the Rockford Aces hosted last night, for example, ran since 2012. In 2019 it had to be canceled unexpectedly, so after seven years of running it, there […]